Avalanche Pass – The Final Conflict
"Is it like this all the time?” Comrade Private Sergei Ivadenov shouted to the man on his left. The wind grabbed his words as soon as he’d uttered them and threw them far away. His companion ignored him as they fought on, heads down, through the gale and blizzard. He could hardly see the men to his front as they struggled on.
He’d arrived on the latest transport from Hades to reinforce the struggling Red Blok forces on Elysium. He had been posted to an RPG Soldier unit and his launcher weighed heavily as he trudged miserably forward. At least they’d brought the right gear for these conditions. He dreaded to think what it must have been like fighting without the insulated clothing he was wearing. He’d heard the stories of people freezing to death where they stood if they stopped moving, even for a minute’s rest. He was now part of the glorious revolutionary counter-attack on Avalanche Pass. He’d also heard the rumours about the last time the Red Blok had been here. Apparently they’d been swept away under an avalanche, the whole lot.
He wished the Five Hierarchs were here, the bastards. They were safe and warm in The Kremlin Space Station. To them he was merely a pin on a map. Not even that, only a minuscule part of a pin. Better keep that thought to himself, the commissars were all over the place making sure no one lost their ideological fervour. He laughed sardonically to himself. How many of his comrades were thinking the same?
What made things worse was, children were in command. Not ordinary kids, that would be foolish, but those freaks grown by Gencol. There were some things even the revolution should leave alone. Where would it all end? "We’ll all be no better than the aliens we’re supposed to be fighting. Just wind us up and point us in the right direction. OK boys, there’s your enemy, go get him.” His speculations were interrupted as he saw ‘Urod’ passing on his right. He shuddered and concentrated on the task ahead.
Was it his imagination or was everyone getting in everyone else’s way? There hardly seemed to be enough room for the whole company. He almost walked into the unit of Krasnye Soldiers ahead of his squad. He could just make out a container stuck in the snow ahead. The Krasnye were beginning to climb over it while troops to his right were taking shelter behind ‘Urod’. He could just make out the sounds of small arms and rocket fire. They had at last found the UNA. The Krasnye were taking casualties but were holding their ground. Then Private Ivadenov saw something falling from the sky through the blizzard.
"Incoming!!!” Someone shouted. He fell to the ground and tried to dig himself deep into the snow. He cowered down and felt debris and shrapnel rain down on his back. Then it all stopped as quickly as it started. He stood up, dazed. When he had recovered his senses he looked around. The Krasnye unit which had, moments before, been leading the attack was now no longer a fighting unit. Dead and wounded littered the ground and what few medics there were could not cope. Ivadenov’s squad had also suffered but not to the same extent. At least they presented a credible fighting unit. They waited and heard the low rumbling of an approaching avalanche. To their relief nothing happened and they moved forward. Someone else had been hit. Hopefully it was the UNA.
At last it was their turn to climb the container. To their left another RPG unit was in support and had already engaged the enemy. As he struggled on to the top of the container Ivadenov’s heart sank. A unit of UNA "Prince” Fire Toads was advancing and a Cobra M8 was joining them to their left. He could just make out a unit of UNA Jam Tac Arms advancing, too. Luckily ‘Urod’ was pummelling the Cobra and one of the Toads was in trouble. The order came to fire and he loosed two rockets at the enemy. His fellow heavy weapons specialists did the same and the salvo streaked towards the UNA crawlers. They in turn came under machine gun fire from the Toads but their medics did a sterling job. Eventually one of the Toads was disabled and another went tumbling through the ice as a flamer from a commando unit on the Red Blok right flank raked it. Missiles rained down from behind the UNA armour as unseen Steel Troopers joined in the battle. The Cobra and ‘Urod’ exchanged fire and, to Ivadenov’s horror, the Red Blok crawler exploded and the two pilots ejected, seeking refuge behind the container. Another salvo of rockets from the two RPG squads soon repaid the Cobra and it, too, disappeared in a fireball. The last remaining Toad eventually succumbed to the Red Blok anti-tank fire and the infantry on both sides closed for the final struggle. Despite the loss of the Krasnye unit on the container and another Krasnye unit plus a commando unit on the right, the Red Blok advance continued. The UNA Steel Troopers laid down an accurate and deadly fire. Their superior weapons, however, meant nothing at such close quarters.
Weight of numbers and revolutionary determination proved too much for the smaller UNA force. They gave way under a withering volley of submachine gun and rocket fire. Avalanche Pass was once again in Red Blok hands. Another victory for collective ideology! (They are few and far between on this ice block.)
"So comrades come rally
And the last fight let us face.
The Intersidereal unites the
human race” | 
